Saturday, June 30, 2012

Week of new

Man this week has been pretty crazy, but in an awesome sort of way.  The weekend has just started and I am so beat from a combination of playing as much as possible and dealing with this incredible heat.  Don't take that as a complaint though its been a bit since I have been this stoked at weeks end.  I got my first two wake sessions on the lake this week, which means my whole body feels like I've been hit by a cement truck.  I built up at long last my first full suspension bike.  It's a burly brick shithouse affair that is short on travel, but big on possiblity for play.  My excitement to race it at Eureka is building, and I can't contain myself with the prospect of testing the new flow track at Slaughter Penn.  To continue in the trend of newness, I picked up my new best friend last night and we have been playing since.  My buddy's dogs got a little frisky this year and produced a beautiful litter of chocolate lab golden retiever mixes.  One now resides with me and soon will be my new PIC on the trail.  His name is Sol and he's already been running around the appartment with me and getting on great with my roomates dog.  I have wanted a puppy for so long and am  stoked to have a furry little friend to roam around with, he will be in the water soon and on the trail when it cools down.

Like most good stories there has to be some level of spontinaity to make life a bit more interesting.  Thrsday fit that bill to a t.  It really started as a normal day, wake up, go to work, the norm.  In normal fashion I was absolutely itching to get out on the lake.  This time of year it seams about the only reasonable thing to do.  Well six came and we were queing up for an abreviated Thurday night ride that would consist of around seventeeen miles of chill riding to end up at a new brewery in town, not exactly a hammerfest ride, but it was right in line with my new "training plan".  If you are questioning the exact method of this plan it is something along the lines of ride bike, drink beer, take every opportunity to play.  So starting the ride I see a text from my mate Heath.  "Lake???", is all it said.  Plenty reason for me to ditch my responsibilities as sweeper for the ride.  After a couple calls we decided Heath would finish his stereo install in the boat, gotta have tunes to ride, and I would finish my road ride to the bar where he could snatch me up.  Well a pleasantly uneventful ride drew to a finish at the brewery.  After about ten minutes I decided the wake session probably wasn't gonna happen and I should grab a beer.  Not two minutes in I look outside and Heath has arrived, unfortunately in tow he has a cop with his lights on,  WTF right?!  I pay my tab slam my beer and run out to put my bike in his truck.  It's a quarter to eight at this point and daylight is burning fast, luckily the cop is cool enough to not ticket Heath for the lack of trailer lights, they were working the night before.  The night seams to be slipping away, but we found the short fixed the issue and decided to try for a quick sesh.  Fifteen minutes later we are at the launch watching a massively underpowered and overused Ford Ranger fail at getting their boat out of the water.  How much can go wrong?  We gotta get in the water though, just need a little extra motivation, so we push the boat and truck out of the boat launch,  and yeah at this point I am running behind a boat in my bibs and bright ass yellow cycling shoes.  I don't think we even asked if we could help, that boat was in our way and we got them rolling, I can only imagine what the family watching this unfold was thinking.  Ten minutes later we are in the water and I am strapped in and up.  The combined energy was so high, even more so then when Heath and I normally get together which can only be described as two puppies playing around.  The conditions were perfect, beutiful glassy water one other boat on the water, a purely perfect end to the evening.  We packed in more runs in the hour we had on the water than I usually get in three.  My final set was to the sunset reflecting off the lake and just super calm, but amped all simultaneously. 

To just sum up the week so much unexpected stuff happened and for once it all just worked out awesomely.  There is still more weekend to be had,  and I am gonna do my best to find more fun shit to do.

Be well and get yo shred on y'all.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Return to Arkansas

So it's been a bit since I hace been able or motivated to write on here, but I am back in Arkansas, near a reliable internet source, and have been urged by friends to push on with my blog.  If you haven't been privy to my stories from Colorado one could sum it up with alcohol, injuries, and of course sweating my balls off in a gigantic, furry, overpriced dog costume ( it's pretty insane that suit cost over 10 grand).  Well I'm back and was extremely excited to get back on the bike to train for a good race season.  Turns out that is not going to happen the same tendinitis I battled with last year has sprung up again with a vengence and will not allow me to put in any concerted effort towards training.  So, I have retuned to my roots of street bmx and have gotten extremely slow on anything except for a downhill trail.  Since my departure from training I have sustained a fair amount of flesh wounds and have gotten a little more that platonically familiar with a rail on campus.  I also recently had the oppurtunity to take myself out on one of our group rides.  It was one of those crashes you just don't expect to happen, but when it does it just destroys you.  I severely bruised my quad and sliced my arm open on a rock.  I'm out for a bit but am ready to get out and destroy some more street and trail.  Oh, and i got a new bike build going that should not only allow me to push my boundaries and probide everyone with more ridiculous stories.  So stay tuned in for further tails of gnar.